Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Orderly book of Captain James Campbell

Orderly book of Captain James Campbell

30 January – 3 February 1788
Manuscript
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DLMS 33

If any officer wishes to go out of Camp Shooting or fishing they are to apply to the Commanding officer who will point out the places where [they] may shoot & fish; and no officer is to leave the camp without permissions from him … *

Especially in the early days of the colony, permission was essential for every activity, no matter how small. Orderly books such as this record the general and regimental orders that enabled the settlement to become established and kept it in some order during these critical first weeks and months.

This orderly book was kept by captain of the Marines James Campbell. Arriving with the First Fleet, he went on to supervise the establishment of the settlement at Rose Hill (Parramatta) and took a great interest in the local plants and animals, sending natural history specimens, including a kangaroo skin, back to his patron and Royal Navy captain, Lord Ducie. At the same time, he was relentlessly critical of Phillip's governorship. Believing that the settlement could not succeed, he quickly became one of the most disgruntled of the officers. He returned to England on the Gorgon, departing December 1791.

James Campbell quickly became one of the most disgruntled officers in the colony, and his pessimistic views are made clear in a number of letters he wrote to his patron, Lord Ducie. In his first letter, he attempts to give the best account ‘of this vile Country’. In the second, incomplete letter, probably written before he was sent to Rose Hill to make preparations for a settlement there, Campbell reiterates his negative view of the colony and its prospects.

James Campbell sailed to NSW on board the convict transport the Lady Penrhyn. The ship carried 32 crew plus 18 marines, and arrived in Port Jackson with 102 female convicts, 12 children and two male convicts. Built at the Thames in 1786, the Lady Penrhyn left Sydney on 5 May 1788 and eventually returned to England in August 1789 and was put on the London–Jamaica run. It was captured in 1811 in the West Indies.